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Gallup:
In 10 states plus the District of Columbia, a majority of residents approved of the job Barack Obama was doing as president last year, according to aggregated data from 2011. His greatest support came from District of Columbia, Maryland, and Hawaii residents, while Utah and Idaho residents gave him his lowest levels of support -- below 30%.
This does not look like a good start for Obama. Some of the states at the bottom of the approval charts are states in the Mountain West where Obama thinks he has to win. Even California is a state where he barely makes 50 percent.

BBC:The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC. The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people. It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders. A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government. Pakistan has strenuously denied any links with the Taliban on previous occasions. "We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks," said US Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby, adding that the US Defence Department had not seen the report. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report - on the state of the Taliban - fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) and the Taliban.The report is based on material from…

WSJ:Tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January 2013 would slow the economy and raise unemployment next year unless policy makers strike a deal to keep those changes from kicking in or offset their impact, the Congressional Budget Office warned. But while such an agreement would boost the economy in the short term, it also would expand the federal budget deficit over time if not combined with other policy changes, the nonpartisan CBO said. Policy makers will have to decide soon how to handle the near-term economic strains as well as the future problems caused by rising government debt, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said. "The longer that we wait as a country to make the sort of choices that we have to make, the harder it will be to make them," he said....
Obama would rather punish the rich than do something to help the economy. Rather than cut spending he will choose job killing policies.

Fox has project Romney as the winner with 48 percent of the vote which is getting close to a true majority. Romney also got the late deciders. This means that even if Santorum had withdrawn it would not have made any difference.

Gingrich is going to stay in. I think it will probably take Super Tuesday to finish off the contest.

Romney did best with those looking for elect-ability. Romney also has the most cash to continue the fight.

Michael Ledeen: Almost everything you read about the “increasing tension” between Iran and the United States revolves around the rhetorical question, “will there be a war?” Whether it’s our own pundits or the Europeans who watch us, “war” seems closer every day. Look at the Guardian’s Simon Tisdall, for example: This is how wars start, through a process of hostile rhetoric, mutual ignorance and chronic miscalculation. Anybody in Tehran following the impassioned US debate on Iran will be aware that an influential Washington constituency, aided and abetted by leading Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, favours military action sooner rather than later. For these American hardliners, it is no longer merely a question of destroying Iran’s suspected nuclear facilities. Regime change is the name of the game because, it is argued, that is the only way to ensure Iran never gets the bomb. If Mr. Tisdall knew as much about American politics as he should, he wouldn’t h…

Daily Caller:In the future, White House speechwriters might want to check the financial statuses of the businesses the president plans to tout as clean-energy success stories. In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama praised Solyndra as a “true engine of economic growth.” Not long after, the solar panel maker went belly up. In his most recent State of the Union address, the president extolled the success of subsidies for manufacturers of electric car batteries. Two days later, battery maker Ener1 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Ener1’s bankruptcy is a blow to taxpayers — the company received a grant of $118 million from the Department of Energy’s $2.4 billion stash to jump-start the electric car industry — but it isn’t a surprise. A recent Scientific American article questioned whether U.S. battery makers would survive the early months of 2012: “In the short term, the world-wide capacity for making batteries far outruns the demand for electric cars. Market an…

Nicholas Loris:President Obama has been on a kick to promote natural gas production. He said in his State of the Union address, “And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock—reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.” There are two very big problems with this statement. First, it makes it sound as if the government invented the technology, commercialized it, and handed it over to private companies. Second, it assumes that if the government hadn’t invested in natural gas technologies, we wouldn’t be where we are today in terms of natural gas production. Both are far from the truth. Well before the government invested in natural gas technologies, it was the private sector that established and developed hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”), a process by which producers inject a fluid, composed of 99 percent w…

Fox News:A theoretical dream for decades, the futuristic railgun -- which uses magnets to shoot bullets for hundreds of miles at speeds of up to Mach 7 -- just took another step toward reality. Military supply company Raytheon announced Monday that it had been awarded a $10 million naval contract to develop a way to supply enough juice to power the whopping gun -- which could someday reshape naval warfare.
"This new system will dramatically change how our Navy defends itself and engages enemies while at sea," said Joe Biondi, vice president of advanced technology for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. Rather than relying on a explosion to fire a projectile, the railgun uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive projectile zips along a set of electrically charged parallel rails and out of the barrel at speeds up to Mach 7. But it takes a heck of a lot of electricity to achieve such a ve…

IBD:Global warming alarmists won't give up their campaign to spread fear and backward thinking until an ice bridge stretches from New York to Paris. Science, though, says they should. Al Gore, who invented global warming hysteria, has most recently been found planning a trip to Antarctica where he will surely find evidence that man is overheating the planet. This clearly insecure man who so desperately needs an audience that approves of his world-saving efforts says he will be taking with him "a large number of civic and business leaders, activists and concerned citizens from many countries." He expects them "to see firsthand and in real time how the climate crisis is unfolding in Antarctica." For Gore's reading material on this trip, we suggest he look at some data released by Great Britain's Met Office. He would find himself meeting head-on a terribly inconvenient truth. According to the data, there's been no warming for more than a decade. The global …

Washington Post:Pakistan struggles to attract tourists
The place is full of religious bigots who want to commit mass murder of those they disagree with and the government and the army seem to have only a casual interest in stopping them. They are also doing little of anything to stop these people from crossing the borders into Afghanistan or India to commit their mass murder operations. And, the object to the US doing anything to stop aggression from Pakistan on the ridiculous basis of sovereignty. If they really had sovereignty over their territory they would not let others use is as a base for attacks.

Daily Mail:A bullet that can steer itself has been developed by national security researchers for widespread use by the army. US military researchers have developed the technology that will see regular army soldiers shooting with the accuracy of snipers. In fact the four-inch-long, dart-like bullet is so effective that it can hit a target, guided by a laser, two kilometers away. Wartime game-changer: The four-inch-long bullet has a sensor that activates tiny fins to steer it to its target It works through an optical sensor in the nose of the bullet which detects a laser beam on a target. The sensor then sends information to guidance and control electronics that uses an algorithm to calculate direction. The bullet then steers itself, via tiny fins, to the target. The game-changing ammunition was designed by Sandia – the US government arm which develops science technologies to improve national security.
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There is a video at the bottom of the link above.

Daily Mail:Up to 15 militants, including four Al Qaeda leaders, have been killed in an overnight airstrike in southern Yemen, it was reported today. An unidentified drone attacked the militants as they were travelling in two vehicles, local residents said this morning. The militants had been travelling east of the city of Loder in Abyan province when the attack took place.
A tribal leader said that between 12 and 15 people were killed in the attack, including at least four leaders in a local Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). One was identified by local tribal leaders as Abdel-Munem al-Fatahani, wanted by America for alleged links to attacks on the U.S. destroyer Cole in 2000 and a French oil tanker in 2002.
Fatahani had survived at least two previous assassination attempts in recent years.
A spokesman for Al Qaeda confirmed this morning's strike but said only three members were killed and two were wounded. There was no immediate comment from Washington. ...
I …

William Yeatman:Recently, I blogged about EPA’s big mercury lie. In a nutshell, the Agency claims that its ultra-expensive new Mercury and Air Toxics rule is appropriate and necessary in order to protect fetuses from developmental disorders. Yet, according to EPA’s own analysis, the new mercury regulation serves to protect America’s supposed population of pregnant, subsistence fisherwomen, who eat 300 pounds of self-caught fish reeled in exclusively from the most polluted bodies of water. To put it another way, this regulation, which costs $10 billion annually, safeguards a population that doesn’t exist. Already, this ridiculous regulation is killing jobs.... ...
Meanwhile the environmentalist are pushing light bulbs with mercury in them into everyone's home. I think the purpose of the regulation is an excuse to kill coal as a fuel for power plants.

Washington Times:A long-range Israeli drone capable of surveillance and bombing missions over Irancrashed Sunday near an Israeli air base during a test flight. The Heron TP unmanned aircraft can stay aloft for 40 hours and has a range of 4,600 miles, theIsraeli air force said. The distance between Iranand Israel is about 1,000 miles. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, commander of the Israeli air force, said new technology on the drone was being tested when the aircraft crashed into an orchard near the Tel Nof air base outside Rehovot. A preliminary investigation indicated that human error and a technical malfunction contributed to the accident, the air force said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. According to military sources, a wing that fell off the drone had been fitted with a highly advanced navigational device that might have interfered with the aircraft’s other flight systems. The Israeli military’s most advanced drone has a wingspan of 85 feet, nearly that of a Boeing 737, and a payload …

Human Events:President Obama loves to talk about energy independence. In his 2012 State of the Union address, he said he wanted to “lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last—an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.” He also called for “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – a strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.”

The president mentioned energy two dozen times during his speech, but his actions are so strongly at odds with his words that he deserves credit for being able to keep a straight face while addressing Congress. Does he really think Americans have forgotten that he slapped down the Keystone XL pipeline project, just a week ago? Or that he destroyed the American offshore drilling industry in 2009?

Obama’s actions are not temporary mistakes that can be easily corrected by his successors. Those offshore drilling…

Institute for Energy Research:The Obama-Salazar Offshore Charade
No new areas or being opened and what is being reopened is being done pursuant to laws already on the books. They are just trying to cover up for their job killing agenda and avoid the consequences of that agenda in the coming election.

Scott Conroy: In this overwhelmingly Hispanic city of 225,000 just outside Miami, Mitt Romney was made to feel right at home on Sunday. The Hialeah Police Department closed down streets surrounding his rally here and escorted the candidate's campaign bus as it rolled into a restaurant parking lot that was packed with a lively crowd of Spanish-speaking Republicans. An animated coterie of introductory speakers bellowed into the microphone in both Spanish and English as the audience cheered and waved homemade signs that read “Vive, Romney!” and “Arriba, Mitt Romney.”With a bouncy demeanor that made his crushing defeat in South Carolina just one week ago seem like a distant memory, Romney let on that he has victory here in his sights.He beamed as his Spanish-speaking son Craig said a few words to the crowd in their native language, and the candidate’s grandson Parker extended his own “Hola.”Romney’s appearance here was one of three well-attended South Florida rallies he hosted just two d…

Karol Markowicz:In a Republican primary season overloaded with second-tier candidates and gaffes, lots of people seem to be watching the never-ending debates with an ear for the next laugh line. After last Monday’s Florida debate, they seized on Mitt Romney’s suggestion that his immigration policy, rather than rounding up illegals, would have people “self-deport.” “The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here,” Romney said. It was an instant joke; everyone was self-deporting. Rick Klein, senior Washington editor for ABC World News, tweeted “pretty soon I shall self-deport from my couch, to gather more liquid to drink.” Andrew Sullivan, hyperventilating, live-blogged that it was “a new Romney verb.” Roll Call’s Ryan Beckwith tweeted that self-deport was a “new phrase to me.” Later in the week, Newt Gingrich jumped on the Romney-mocking bandwag…

Telegraph:Snow to hit BritainThe big freeze will hit again this week with snow, frosts and freezing fog.
Global warming does appear to be overrated. This weather is unusual for Britain because the Gulf Stream nomally keeps the weather muggy, but not so cold.

A Canadian jury Sunday convicted a family of Afghan immigrants of the "honor" murders of four female relatives whose bodies were found in an Ontario canal.
Mohammed Shafia, 58; his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42; and their son, Hamed, 21, were found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Shafia's three teenage daughters and his first wife in his polygamous marriage. Sunday's verdicts followed a three-month trial, in which jurors heard wiretaps of Shafia referring to his daughters as "whores" and ranting about their behavior.
"This is a good day for Canadian justice. Our democratic society protects the rights of all," Gerard Laarhuis, the chief prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside the courthouse in Kingston. "It's a very bad day, because this jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family."
At least one Shafia family supporter interrupted Laarhuis with shouts…

Chicago Tribune Editorial:President Barack Obama knows the federal government has a big spending problem, and he is not reluctant to point it out. "The American people deserve to have their leaders come together to make the tough choices necessary to live within our means, just as American families do every day in these tough economic times," the White House said in November. In his State of the Union address, Obama was not so keen on preaching austerity. As part of his plan to create an economy that is "built to last," he said it's necessary to "pay down our debt and invest in our future." The phrase "invest in our future," we regret to report, is Washington-speak for "spend money." And in the current fiscal context, that means "spend money we don't have." His speech to Congress contained a litany of new spending programs, from creating a new "Trade Enforcement Unit" to helping out homeowners who haven't b…

Michael Grabell:...The stimulus was supposed to work like this: First, a flood of money in tax cuts, food stamps and unemployment checks would get consumers spending. A deluge of education and health-care money would stanch the bleeding in state budgets.Then, a wave of “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects would kick in, creating new jobs repaving roads and making homes more energy efficient. As the economy got churning again, new investments in wind farms, solar panel factories, electric cars, broadband and high-speed rail would lead America out of the recession and into a 21st century economy competitive with the rest of the world.But it didn’t happen like that. The White House’s economists, like nearly every forecaster, misread the recession. The state assistance wasn’t enough to plug the budget holes and, in many cases, the school aid merely delayed rather than prevented teacher layoffs. Infrastructure projects took months longer to break ground than the public had been led to be…

Washington Post:
Muhannad Mahmoud can’t find a place in the new Iraq.
The American military, which hired him and more than 80,000 other Sunni fighters to take on al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents, just left. But the insurgents certainly have not.
The Iraqi government, increasingly dominated by Shiite powers, is leery about hiring the fighters as security forces. And even if Mahmoud were able to land such a job, some of his fellow Sunnis are so distrustful of the new government that they would label him a traitor.
As a member of the Sons of Iraq, who were widely credited with helping the United States restore stability to the country several years ago, Mahmoud and his brethren say they have been pushed to the side — even as insurgents come after them daily.
“I am ready to fight them again,” Mahmoud said recently, taking a break from his job repairing power lines that run from a neighborhood generator to homes and businesses.
For years, the Iraqi government has struggled to carry out …

James Q. Wilson:
There is no doubt that incomes are unequal in the United States — far more so than in most European nations. This fact is part of the impulse behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, whose members claim to represent the 99 percent of us against the wealthiest 1 percent. It has also sparked a major debate in the Republican presidential race, where former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has come under fire for his tax rates and his career as the head of a private-equity firm.
And economic disparity was the recurring theme of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. “We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” the president warned, “or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share.”
But the mere existence of income inequality tells us little about what, if anything, should be done about it. First, we must answer …